Enough random spamming for now, I’ll talk about one of the first summer shows I watched, the other one being Nogizaka Haruka.
Blade of the Immortal is a manga I have been following since my years in high school. Knowing that Bee Train has been animating it has made my fears legitimate.
Go to Aroduc’s site for screencaps, I am too freaking lazy, like I am for a lot of things. So I has downloaded it and watched it after hearing all sort of bad press from the blogsphere and forums, my expectations were oh so low.
What’s of it? What’s my impressions of Blade of the Immortal Das Animasshun?
Not bad, but could have been better.
After reading the manga for so long, I ended up to view Blade of the Immortal as a spaghetti western with chambara elements. In other words, lots of “slow” scenes with the occasional spectacular explosion of violence.
I am not sure if Hiroaki Samura has seen those movies, but I bet he did. So, that’s how I view BoTI. Did it translate well on the screen? I am tempted to say “yes but”. “Yes”, because there are the violence. “But” because it was toned down, the blood is red, sure, but it is not as graphically and over-the-top violent as the manga, it may be the TV restriction and the post-Nice Boat fuss.
Now, while keeping in mind that it is a first episode, the flow of the story has gone okay in my book. Not lots of dragging on moments as I usually fear from Bee Train production.
Next topic is the voice acting. Tomokazu Seki is not bad as Manji, it is just that fans like I has expected someone with a deeper voice range, like Koichi Yamadera, or a voice range, deep and tormented, like Kaneto Shiozawa’s IF the poor man was still alive ;/
No prob with Maya Sakamoto, I have yet to hear Mamiko Noto as Makie.
Now my biggest qualm will be the music. No problem with the style, even tho I would have liked to hear Tsuneo Inamori on it (his work on Gungrave and Trigun has convinced me that he can give a western genre movie feeling to his OST, oh I and my western spaghettis). So the problem is not the style really. It is the volume. It’s loud, it’s like going in a heavy metal concert and trying to get heard and understood. It was not bad in the eight first minutes, but when you hit the 9:00 mark you has the tempation to shout “WHAT YOU SAY MANJI??!!!”. That’s how it is, and here I echo’s Aroduc.
In short, Blade of the Immortal is not bad, it just could have been better. Sadly, from Bee Train and the director of the series (known for recycling the same themes and tropes in his Girls with Guns series), I expect the quality in narration, direction and animation to take a nose dive. I’ll follow it for maybe six more episodes then I’ll likely drop it.
And as apology for the lack of Manji, have a Youmu instead.
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I actually really enjoyed the first ep, the subs were crappy and the audio sucked, but other than that i was rather interested. It has a few quirks, but no anime really starts of perfect. This is a series i’ll definatly be following, and im tempted to read the manga now, since i havent yet.
Maybe you should start reading the manga when the anime is half-way or over. Otherwise, it may influence your judgement on a negative way.
I am willing to give it a chance before calling it rubbish or otherwise.
If I were to rate it, I would be 7 or 6.5 at most, 5 or 6 at least. On a scale of 10.